Leftovers at core of construction firm's new success

April 19, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Ener Maya applies a glue to the side of a wooden plank before joining it to the other planks. Maya was in the early stages of making a bar top for a restaurant in San Francisco. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Juan Arellano applies a coat of varnish to a table being assembled. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Painting supplies are laid out in the paint workshop for Planks USA in Lake Forest. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Luis Flores from Lake Forest works on upholstery accessories; he was working on the early stages of a small pillow. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Sam Fitch leans on one of the tables that is on display at his Planks USA Lake Forest showroom; Planks USA was formed after Fitch shut down his construction company due to business slowly halting. Many of the items that are used in their furniture are from reclaimed wood or reclaimed industrial artifacts. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Ener Maya applies a glue to the side of a wooden plank before joining it to the other planks. Maya was in the early stages of making a bar top for a restaurant in San Francisco.ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Planks USA

LAKE FOREST – Entering Sam Fitch's conference room feels a little like walking into an Old West saloon, albeit a high-end one.

The room is bookended by traditional sliding barn doors, the walls paneled in bricks and 2-by-9 boards.

A massive wooden table dominates the room, which leads to a smaller bar-like passageway with an imposing wooden bar, tufted bench, Jack Daniels paraphernalia and a door made from narrow strips of worn boards.

The five letters branded into some of the boards – F-I-T-C-H – aren't just part of the decor, though. They are a reminder of a failed family business, and just how far Fitch has come since then.

'I CAN MAKE THAT'

Fitch took over his father's construction firm during the recession of the early 1990s.

The company initially subsisted on smaller projects, such as custom homes, until the end of the decade when an uptick in the industry saw developers calling with bigger projects, such as apartment complexes. At its peak, the company employed about 400 workers.

Those bigger projects slowed as the Great Recession approached in late 2007, mercilessly dragging down the construction industry. As building ground to a halt, Fitch decided it was time to close down.

"Basically, we lost everything," Sam Fitch said.

Well, not quite everything. The Fitch family was left with a sea of 2-by-9 boards, scaffolding that had supported workers as they raised new buildings.

With his only training a woodworking class in junior high, the Lake Forest construction company owner decided to try his hand at building some industrial-style furniture.

The idea emerged when Fitch's wife, Tracy, spotted furniture she liked in a design magazine and suggested they get similarly styled pieces for their home.

"The company was going under, and I couldn't afford it," Sam Fitch recalled. "I said, 'I can make that.'"

FLEA MARKET FAME

When family and friends spotted the tables he had built in the backyard, they encouraged the Fitches to display the furniture at the Long Beach Antique Market.

Grasping for ways to pay the bills, Sam Fitch fashioned more of his scaffolding planks into rustic tables and carted them off to the flea market to gauge their appeal. The tables were a hit, and other sellers encouraged the Fitch family to head to the big leagues: Los Angeles' Rose Bowl Flea Market.

By that time, the Fitches were incorporating vintage items spotted at garage sales into the tables, from a steel railroad switch to old steel plumbing.

When they finally scored a spot at the Rose Bowl, the Fitches' booth was mobbed.

"We had (companies) that wanted us to do their entire offices, people wanted us to do their restaurants ... from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., we couldn't even sit down," Fitch said.

At subsequent visits, shoppers would crowd the truck as it was unloaded, jostling one another to see the latest Fitch creation.

"Basically, it turned into a whole business," Sam Fitch said.

Retailers and restaurateurs loved the rustic-yet-contemporary feel of the furniture, which the family sold under the name Planks USA, in a nod to their main building material and the furniture's provenance. Designers soon discovered the furniture, and orders began rolling in.

Building in the backyard became unwieldy, so the Fitches tracked down an office in Dana Point. They moved to successively larger offices, eventually settling in Lake Forest.

Word of mouth has brought in orders from hotels, clothing stores and restaurants, including chef Gordon Ramsey's Los Angeles gastro pub The Fat Cow, and Orange County eateries such as Sol Cocina in Newport Beach.

FANS, FUTURE

Ryan Moore, owner of Costa Mesa's Mi Casa Mexican Restaurant, turned to Planks USA when he decided to open a second location in Rancho Santa Margarita. Moore and his wife were "thoroughly impressed" with the look and quality of the furniture, Moore said.

"It was contemporary, but he managed to maintain an old-school feel," Moore said. "Ultimately, it summed up what I wanted my South County store to feel like."

Planks USA outfitted Mi Casa with tables, chairs, booth, a hostess stand and two bars. The back bar, Moore said, is his favorite piece.

"It really summarizes the feel that I want to convey in my bar," he said. "It's by no means snobby or in-your-face."

That first dining table Sam Fitch built didn't stay in the house; it wound up in a Hollywood production studio, which ended up purchasing roughly 20 pieces. These days, corporate customers include Disney, Hulu and Irvine-based clothing retailer Tilly's.

"We're getting requests from all over the country right now," Sam Fitch said. "We struggle every week to get the payroll paid, but we're growing the company. We're all here to try and make it succeed."

The company has plans to export its products to Japan through a designer who said his clients have an appetite for U.S.-made furniture and will pay extra for it.

"When we first started doing the tables, I was in survival mode," Sam Fitch said. "We never thought it would turn into what it is now. The way that it came so fast and the people we're dealing with now, the big corporations ... I could never have imagined two years ago we'd be doing this."

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